Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://specialtyfoodmagazine.epubxp.com/i/139333
POTTING SHED CREATIONS, LTD. TM culinary candy counter PHOTO: LEIGH LOFTUS, THINKLEIGH PHOTOGRAPHY handmade in the usa for 16 year s seed-to-table "Guys put on the brakes when they see candy with beer in the name." Grow BottleTM Handmade from reclaimed restaurant wine bottles pottingshedcreations.com 800.505.7496 ATLANTA GIFT - high design - booth 825 NEW YORK GIFT - booth 6520 80 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE with a 22-ounce bottle of Rogue's Shakespeare stout, the same brew used to make the chocolates. Similarly, during demos and samplings of the Beer & Pretzels items, Standard Market will display packages of the component beer and pretzel brands, which the store also carries, so that customers can make the connection. "It's a trifecta of sales," Blumer says. New York's Roni-Sue partners with organizations that do pairing events such as Good Beer NYC, handing out samples to beer aficionados. Truffle Truffle participates in the annual Chicago Beer Festival. The confectioner also partners with Rogue, the brand Greene uses in her confections. "At the outset I was experimenting in my kitchen doing reductions of 16 different beers; it smelled like a brewery," Greene recalls. Initially, she didn't want to use Rogue's chocolate stout because its flavors seemed too obvious a choice. "But it is a balanced pairing; I still get the maltiness and hoppiness from the stout, but it's not bitter and doesn't cut against the sweetness of the specialtyfood.com chocolate." The namesake brewery noticed the Beer & Pretzels collection and liked the product, Greene says. Now she conducts cross-promotional activities with Rogue. More Confections to Come Encouraged by their success, producers plan to continue mining the beer world for more confection ideas. One of the specials that Truffle Truffle's Greene has created for sampling at beer events is a Beer S'more. The one-off product sandwiches milk chocolate cream infused with chocolate stout and a beerflavored marshmallow in graham sugar cookies with the whole concoction dipped in chocolate. "It has gotten acclaim at tasting events," says Greene, who is thinking of making the Beer S'mores a permanent part of company's portfolio. "I'm going to do more beer candies. I have a ton of ideas," says Beercandy's Casselman. "Beer is still just a dot on the candy universe." Thomas Henry Strenk is a beverage-focused freelance writer who home-brews beer in his Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment.